2. The Blessed Virgin as the Model of the Church in Divine Worship

16. In accordance with some of the guidelines of the Council's teaching on
Mary and the Church, we now wish to examine more closely a particular aspect of
the relationship between Mary and the liturgy - namely, Mary as a model of the
spiritual attitude with which the Church celebrates and lives the divine
mysteries. That the Blessed Virgin is an exemplar in this field derives from the
fact that she is recognized as a most excellent exemplar of the Church in the
order of faith, charity and perfect union with Christ,
[43] that is, of that interior disposition
with which the Church, the beloved spouse, closely associated with her Lord,
invokes Christ and through Him worships the eternal Father.
[44]

17. Mary is the attentive Virgin, who receives the word of God with
faith, that faith which in her case was the gateway and path to divine
motherhood, for, as Saint Augustine realized, "Blessed Mary by believing
conceived Him [Jesus] whom believing she brought forth."
[45] In fact, when she received from the
angel the answer to her doubt (cf. Lk. 1:34-37), "full of faith, and
conceiving Christ in her mind before conceiving Him in her womb, she said, 'I am
the handmaid of the Lord, let what you have said be done to me' (Lk. 1:38).
" [46] It was faith that was for her the
cause of blessedness and certainty in the fulfillment of the promise:
"Blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be
fulfilled" (Lk. 1:45). Similarly, it was faith with which she, who played a
part in the Incarnation and was a unique witness to it, thinking back on the
events of the infancy of Christ, meditated upon these events in her heart (cf.
Lk. 2:19, 51). The Church also acts in this way, especially in the liturgy, when
with faith she listens, accepts, proclaims and venerates the word of God,
distributes it to the faithful as the bread of life
[47] and in the light of that word examines
the signs of the times and interprets and lives the events of history.

18. Mary is also the Virgin in prayer. She appears as such in the
visit to the mother of the precursor, when she pours out her soul in expressions
glorifying God, and expressions of humility, faith and hope. This prayer is the
Magnificat (cf. Lk. 1:46-55), Mary's prayer par excellence, the song of the
messianic times in which there mingles the joy of the ancient and the new
Israel. As St. Irenaeus seems to suggest, it is in Mary's canticle that there
was heard once more the rejoicing of Abraham who foresaw the Messiah (cf. Jn.
8:56) [48] and there rang out in prophetic
anticipation the voice of the Church: "In her exultation Mary prophetically
declared in the name of the Church: 'My soul proclaims the glory of the Lord….'
" [49] And in fact Mary's hymn has
spread far and wide and has become the prayer of the whole Church in all ages.

At Cana, Mary appears once more as the Virgin in prayer: when she tactfully
told her Son of a temporal need, she also obtained an effect of grace, namely,
that Jesus, in working the first of His "signs," confirmed His
disciples' faith in Him (cf. Jn. 2:1-12).

Likewise, the last description of Mary's life presents her as praying. The
apostles "joined in continuous prayer, together with several women,
including Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers" (Acts 1:14). We
have here the prayerful presence of Mary in the early Church and in the Church
throughout all ages, for, having been assumed into heaven, she has not abandoned
her mission of intercession and salvation.
[50] The title Virgin in prayer also fits the
Church, which day by day presents to the Father the needs of her children,
"praises the Lord unceasingly and intercedes for the salvation of the
world." [51]

19. Mary is also the Virgin-Mother - she who "believing and
obeying ... brought forth on earth the Father's Son. This she did, not knowing
man but overshadowed by the Holy Spirit."
[52] This was a miraculous motherhood, set up
by God as the type and exemplar of the fruitfulness of the Virgin-Church, which
"becomes herself a mother.... For by her preaching and by baptism she
brings forth to a new and immortal life children who are conceived by the power
of the Holy Spirit and born of God."
[53] The ancient Fathers rightly taught that
the Church prolongs in the sacrament of Baptism the virginal motherhood of Mary.
Among such references we like to recall that of our illustrious predecessor,
Saint Leo the Great, who in a Christmas homily says: "The origin which
[Christ] took in the womb of the Virgin He has given to the baptismal font: He
has given to water what He had given to His Mother - the power of the Most High
and the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit (cf. Lk. 1:35), which was responsible
for Mary's bringing forth the Savior, has the same effect, so that water may
regenerate the believer." [54] If we
wished to go to liturgical sources, we could quote the beautiful Illatio
of the Mozarabic liturgy: "The former [Mary] carried Life in her womb; the
latter [the Church] bears Life in the waters of baptism. In Mary's members
Christ was formed; in the waters of the Church Christ is put on."
[55]

20. Mary is, finally, the Virgin presenting offerings. In the episode
of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple (cf. Lk. 2:22-35), the Church, guided
by the Spirit, has detected, over and above the fulfillment of the laws
regarding the offering of the firstborn (cf. Ex. 13:11-16) and the purification
of the mother (cf. Lv. 12:6-8), a mystery of salvation related to the history of
salvation. That is, she has noted the continuity of the fundamental offering
that the Incarnate Word made to the Father when He entered the world (cf. Heb.
15:5-7), The Church has seen the universal nature of salvation proclaimed, for
Simeon, greeting in the Child the light to enlighten the peoples and the glory
of the people Israel (cf. Lk. 2:32), recognized in Him the Messiah, the Savior
of all. The Church has understood the prophetic reference to the Passion of
Christ: the fact that Simeon's words, which linked in one prophecy the Son as
"the sign of contradiction" (Lk. 2:34) and the Mother, whose soul
would be pierced by a sword (cf. Lk. 2:35), came true on Calvary. A mystery of
salvation, therefore, that in its various aspects orients the episode of the
Presentation in the Temple to the salvific event of the cross. But the Church
herself, in particular from the Middle Ages onwards, has detected in the heart
of the Virgin taking her Son to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (cf. Lk.
2:22) a desire to make an offering, a desire that exceeds the ordinary meaning
of the rite. A witness to this intuition is found in the loving prayer of Saint
Bernard: "Offer your Son, holy Virgin, and present to the Lord the blessed
fruit of your womb. Offer for the reconciliation of us all the holy Victim which
is pleasing to God." [56]

This union of the Mother and the Son in the work of redemption
[57] reaches its climax on Calvary, where
Christ "offered himself as the perfect sacrifice to God" (Heb. 9:14)
and where Mary stood by the cross (cf. Jn. 19:25), "suffering grievously
with her only-begotten Son. There she united herself with a maternal heart to
His sacrifice, and lovingly consented to the immolation of this victim which she
herself had brought forth" [58] and also
was offering to the eternal Father. [59] To
perpetuate down the centuries the Sacrifice of the Cross, the divine Savior
instituted the Eucharistic Sacrifice, the memorial of His death and
resurrection, and entrusted it to His spouse the Church,
[60] which, especially on Sundays, calls the
faithful together to celebrate the Passover of the Lord until He comes again.
[61] This the Church does in union with the
saints in heaven and in particular with the Blessed Virgin,
[62] whose burning charity and unshakeable
faith she imitates.

21. Mary is not only an example for the whole Church in the exercise of
divine worship but is also, clearly, a teacher of the spiritual life for
individual Christians. The faithful at a very early date began to look to Mary
and to imitate her in making their lives an act of worship of God and making
their worship a commitment of their lives. As early as the fourth century, St.
Ambrose, speaking to the people, expressed the hope that each of them would have
the spirit of Mary in order to glorify God: "May the heart of Mary be in
each Christian to proclaim the greatness of the Lord; may her spirit be in
everyone to exult in God." [63] But Mary
is above all the example of that worship that consists in making one's life an
offering to God. This is an ancient and ever new doctrine that each individual
can hear again by heeding the Church's teaching, but also by heeding the very
voice of the Virgin as she, anticipating in herself the wonderful petition of
the Lord's Prayer - "Your will be done" (Mt. 6:10) - replied to God's
messenger: "I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let what you have said be done
to me" (Lk. 1:38). And Mary's "yes" is for all Christians a
lesson and example of obedience to the will of the Father, which is the way and
means of one's own sanctification.

22. It is also important to note how the Church expresses in various
effective attitudes of devotion the many relationships that bind her to Mary: in
profound veneration, when she reflects on the singular dignity of the Virgin
who, through the action of the Holy Spirit, has become Mother of the Incarnate
Word; in burning love, when she considers the spiritual motherhood of Mary
towards all members of the Mystical Body; in trusting invocation when she
experiences the intercession of her advocate and helper
[64]; in loving service, when she sees in the
humble handmaid of the Lord the queen of mercy and the mother of grace; in
zealous imitation, when she contemplates the holiness and virtues of her who is
"full of grace" (Lk. 1:28); in profound wonder, when she sees in her,
"as in a faultless model, that which she herself wholly desires and hopes
to be" [65]; attentive study, when she
recognizes in the associate of the Redeemer, who already shares fully in the
fruits of the Paschal Mystery, the prophetic fulfillment of her own future,
until the day on which, when she has been purified of every spot and wrinkle
(cf. Eph. 5:27), she will become like a bride arrayed for the bridegroom, Jesus
Christ (cf. Rev. 21:2).

23. Therefore, venerable Brothers, as we consider the piety that the
liturgical Tradition of the universal Church and the renewed Roman Rite
expresses towards the holy Mother of God, and as we remember that the liturgy
through its pre-eminent value as worship constitutes the golden norm for
Christian piety, and finally as we observe how the Church when she celebrates
the sacred mysteries assumes an attitude of faith and love similar to that of
the Virgin, we realize the rightness of the exhortation that the Second Vatican
Council addresses to all the children of the Church, namely "that the cult,
especially the liturgical cult, of the Blessed Virgin be generously fostered.
" [66] This is an exhortation that we
would like to see accepted everywhere without reservation and put into zealous
practice.

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